Daily Archives: August 8, 2012

2012 Primary, Communications Theory, Editorial, Mitt Romney, True Talking Points

Ann Coulter Blasts Romney Campaign and Andrea Saul. Is Romney Serious About Repealing Obamacare? – UPDATED!

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UPDATE – Even CNN dismantles this add showing how it is just not true: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMkmxJ3P9Tw

UPDATE II – Obama lied about his campaign not linking Romney to “murder” – LINK  –  LINK.

 

Coulter is right. This is an embarrassment. Andrea Saul did not even seem to have the best facts straight before responding on behalf of the Romney Campaign. The question is, why does a presidential campaign have a twenty-something hottie for a campaign spokesman?

In case you missed it, here is Andrea Saul responding to an Obama ad accusing Mitt Romney of costing a man his job and health care for his family. His wife didn’t want to report she was sick and died of stage four cancer. The accusation is silly on its face. We will give the answer she should have given in a moment, but first watch this spectacle:

SAUL: To that point, you know, if people had been in Massachusetts under Governor Romney’s health care plan, they would have had health care. There are a lot of people losing their jobs and their health care in President Obama’s economy.

The text comment by the YouTube uploader is correct in that answers like this make people doubt that the campaign is serious about repealing ObamaCare. This is now the third Romney Campaign luminary who has indicated this in one form or another. This is compounded by the fact that Romney was for the national insurance mandate before he was against it.

The ad is a preposterous lie for several reasons:

1 –  Mitt Romney left Bain for the Olympics before the decision was made to close the plant and an Obama Campaign bundler was actually running Bain at the time.

2 – The company was dying and Bain tried to rescue GST Steel. The man in the video has Bain Capital to thank because without them GST Steel would have died three years earlier.

3 – The woman who died had insurance when her husband left GST Steel.

4 – And she didn’t get very ill until 2006!

5 – The Obama campaign says that the ad was done by a 527 group and that it has no control over what they do, but what they don’t say is that Obama Cabinet members are the ones funding the 527.

6 – Obama is directly responsible for almost 100,000 energy jobs lost and those are top jobs with insurance. Obama is also responsible for retirees at Delphi losing many of their benefits. Only FDR beats Obama when it comes to sustained job losses over time.

UPDATE – Soptic was offered a buyout from Bain when he worked for the company and CHOSE NOT TO TAKE THE INSURANCE – LINK.

That is why this ad is such an outrage. So it is not as if Andrea Saul did not have plenty of legit ammo to use in her response. You can be sure that some conservative voters will stay home on election day simply because they saw Andrea Saul’s remarks.

Ann Coulter:

I am going to get in trouble for what I am about to say here but it must be said. There is a problem in insider American politics that people should be aware of.

Let me preface my remarks by saying that candidates for Congress ask me for advice often as well as communications pros from around the country. While we are not nearly as popular as Hotair.com or Gateway Pundit this web site has a big enough impact that many in political journalism are very aware of us (and at the risk of being immodest have been aware of yours truly for several years). I spent some time in DC. When looking for work I learned that my competition for most any position included at least a dozen ladies who all are wielding serious cleavage, sparkling hair, a come hither smile, and a Masters Degree. I know through experience that countless women like this come to DC to get their Congressional and Executive Branch knee pads. If anyone thinks that “Monica Lewinsky’s” are uncommon they have not spent time in DC. Sex appeal is a weapon in politics and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying to you or hasn’t actually spent time in the district.

With that said does this mean that we are accusing Andrea Saul of sleeping her way to the top? No we are not. But what we will say is that she has been around for a few years, we are aware of her, and while she is certainly a hottie, her skills as a crisis communications pundit have never seemed particularly impressive [Editor’s Note – we take no pleasure in saying this and we understand that Miss Saul is a real person with real feelings. With that said this is a presidential camnpaign and the stakes are just too high to have this kind of a problem. We wish Miss Saul all the best in her future endeavors].

2012 Primary, Budget, Econ, Energy Policy, Jobs, Obama, True Talking Points

Obama’s EPA crushing coal-fired power plants, electricity bills rise…

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RELATED:

Candidate Joe Kennedy III Calls for End To “Cheap Oil” – LINK

Gas Prices Under President Obama – LINK

EPA Official on Video: We Are “Crucifying” Oil And Gas Companies – LINK

Under Obama, Price of Gas Has Jumped 83 Percent, Ground Beef 24 Percent, Bacon 22 Percent – LINK

Obama Green Energy Program Cost $9.8 million Per Job – LINK

15th Green Energy Company Funded by Obama Goes Under – LINK

On Oil Obama Says One Thing & Does Another – LINK

GAO: Recoverable American oil in a single location equal to the entire world oil reserves – LINK

 

 

Phil Kerpen:

With the country focused on this week’s high drama at the Supreme Court, President Obama’s EPA quietly released long-delayed regulations to apply global warming rules never authorized by Congress to new coal-fired power plants.

That Obama’s EPA would release a rule to destroy coal-fired electricity while the president gives stump speeches about an “all of the above” energy policy is an insult to the American people.

This rule will effectively block any new coal-fired power plants from being built in America, and a second round of related rules – expected after the election, of course – will shut down existing coal-fired power plants.

The result will be steeply higher electricity prices, lost jobs, and lower standards of living. Remarkably, this is all done in the name of global warming, but even EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson admits it will have no discernible impact on global temperatures. Obama’s EPA is crippling the U.S. economy not to accomplish anything, but just to enjoy a nice, warm, green feeling of self-satisfaction.

Four years ago, then-candidate Barack Obama explained his anti-coal energy policy in an editorial board meeting with the San Francisco Chronicle. Obama said: “Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. Even regardless of what I say about whether coal is good or bad.” He went on to explain: “So, if somebody wants to build a coal plant, they can — it’s just that it will bankrupt them.”

Indeed Obama attempted to make good on his campaign promise to bankrupt the coal industry and make electricity prices skyrocket the legitimate way – by proposing cap-and-trade legislation in Congress. It was jammed through the House but crashed and burned in the Senate, where many Democrats understood such an energy rationing plan to be political suicide.

They were right.

The American people decisively rejected energy taxes and rationing in the 2010 election, with dozens of Democrats losing because of their support for cap-and-trade. West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin survived and won his Senate seat by literally shooting a bullet through in the bill in a television ad.

But the day after the 2010 election President Obama said: “Cap-and-trade was just one way of skinning the cat; it was not the only way. It was a means, not an end. And I’m going to be looking for other means to address this problem.”

With Tuesday’s EPA action to bankrupt coal, he found his “other means” to address the “problem” of affordable electricity.

As I demonstrated in my book “Democracy Denied”, under Article I, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution, the power to make these decisions resides in Congress, not the EPA.

The House has already acted to fix the structural problem that allows bureaucrats to implement economy-changing rules without congressional approval when they passed the REINS Act last year, a bill that would require prior-approval from Congress for major new regulations.

The Senate has refused to act on the legislation.

Fortunately, Senator Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) has already promised to introduce a resolution of disapproval that will put every senator on the record on this global warming power grab. Because the resolution is privileged under the Congressional Review Act, Harry Reid cannot prevent it from coming to the floor and it cannot be filibustered.

Whatever the result of that Senate vote is, it will ultimately be up to the American people to hold Congress and the president accountable for the actions taken by rogue EPA bureaucrats this week.

Nothing less than America’s economic future is at stake.

Phil Kerpen is vice president for policy at Americans for Prosperity and the author of “Democracy Denied: How Obama is Ignoring You and Bypassing Congress to Radically Transform America – and How to Stop Him.”

 

2012 Primary, Dirty Tricks, Health Law, Obama, True Talking Points

Rationing Begins: 16 States Limit Drug Prescriptions for Medicaid Patients

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Sarah Palin told you so….

CNS News:

Sixteen states have set a limit on the number of prescription drugs they will cover for Medicaid patients, according to Kaiser Health News.

Seven of those states, according to Kaiser Health News, have enacted or tightened those limits in just the last two years.

Medicaid is a federal program that is carried out in partnership with state governments. It forms an important element of President Barack Obama’s health-care plan because under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act–AKA Obamcare–a larger number of people will be covered by Medicaid, as the income cap is raised for the program.

With both the expanded Medicaid program and the federal subsidy for health-care premiums that will be available to people earning up to 400 percent of the poverty level, a larger percentage of the population will be wholly or partially dependent on the government for their health care under Obamacare than are now.

In Alabama, Medicaid patients are now limited to one brand-name drug, and HIV and psychiatric drugs are excluded.

Illinois has limited Medicaid patients to just four prescription drugs as a cost-cutting move, and patients who need more than four must get permission from the state.

Speaking on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal on Monday, Phil Galewitz, staff writer for Kaiser Health News, said the move “only hurts a limited number of patients.”

“Drugs make up a fair amount of costs for Medicaid. A lot of states have said a lot of drugs are available in generics where they cost less, so they see this sort of another move to push patients to take generics instead of brand,” Galewitz said.

“It only hurts a limited number of patients, ‘cause obviously it hurts patients who are taking multiple brand name drugs in the case of Alabama, Illinois. Some of the states are putting the limits on all drugs. It’s another place to cut. It doesn’t hurt everybody, but it could hurt some,” he added.

Galewitz said the move also puts doctors and patients in a “difficult position.”

“Some doctors I talked to would work with patients with asthma and diabetes, and sometimes it’s tricky to get the right drugs and the right dosage to figure out how to control some of this disease, and just when they get it right, now the state is telling them that, ‘Hey, you’re not going to get all this coverage. You may have to switch to a generic or find another way,’” he said.

Arkansas, California, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and West Virginia have all placed caps on the number of prescription drugs Medicaid patients can get.

Culture War, Egypt, Israel, Jihad, Libya, Obama, Treason, True Talking Points

Muslim Brotherhood has Three Battalions Fighting in Syria

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… and odds are the Obama Administration is arming them. The Obama Administration already helped the Brotherhood take over Egypt where they are already killing Christians and oppressing women and have promised war with Israel, and the Obama Administration helped the Muslim Brotherhood in Libya.

Times of Israel:

The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria has formed three armed battalions “for self-defense and to defend the oppressed,” the group’s spokesman said Sunday.

Mulham Al-Droubi told Saudi owned daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat that the battalions were created three months ago and are deployed across Syria, but “especially in areas with intense fighting.” He said they operated under the umbrella of the Free Syrian Army, which functions as a regular army but is composed of semi-independent units.

This was the first public acknowledgment of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood taking part in fighting on the ground. The precise number of combatants in the battalions is unknown.

The reports bolster expert opinions that the opposition forces include significant Islamist elements.

Droubi refused to tell the daily who was arming the forces, but noted that Syrians were capable of defending themselves and that no foreign fighters had entered the country.

British daily The Telegraph reported Friday that the Muslim Brotherhood “militia” was called “Armed men of the Muslim Brotherhood” and was formed in order to unite dispersed fighters on the ground. Hossam Abu-Habel, the son of a Syrian Muslim Brotherhood member in the 1950s, told the daily that he raises $40,000-$50,000 a month to provide weapons and other aid to Islamist fighters in the Homs region.

The Telegraph reported that a split has occurred between the Free Syrian Army (FSA), which conducts fighting on the ground, and the Syrian National Council (SNC), the political opposition in exile. The FSA has now established a political wing and receives funding from Saudi Arabia, while SNC is funded by Qatar.

An Islamic militiaman fighting in Aleppo told The Telegraph that he would be offended if associated with the Free Syrian Army.

2012 Primary, Dirty Tricks, Obama, Pay to Play, Treason, True Talking Points, Unions

GM Bailout: Obama Administration ordered the termination of retiree benefits for 20,000 non-union workers while topping off union benefits (video)

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Welcome to Chicago….err I mean Detroit…..err I mean Washington; where if you don’t want to be punished you had better pay “the man”. This is unspeakable cruelty and where was the elite media?

UPDATE – Michelle Malkin tells the story:

UPDATE II – Retired Delphi Employees Spaek Out! http://www.whymrpresidentwhy.com/

UPDATE III – New ad tells story of how Obama screwed non-union GM employees:

Matt Boyle at The Daily Caller:

Emails obtained by The Daily Caller show that the U.S. Treasury Department, led by Timothy Geithner, was the driving force behind terminating the pensions of 20,000 salaried retirees at the Delphi auto parts manufacturing company.

The move, made in 2009 while the Obama administration implemented its auto bailout plan, appears to have been made solely because those retirees were not members of labor unions.

The internal government emails contradict sworn testimony, in federal court and before Congress, given by several Obama administration figures. They also indicate that the administration misled lawmakers and the courts about the sequence of events surrounding the termination of those non-union pensions, and that administration figures violated federal law.

Delphi, a 13-year old company that is independent of General Motors, is one of the world’s largest automotive parts manufacturers. Twenty thousand of its workers lost nearly their entire pensions when the government bailed out GM. At the same time, Delphi employees who were members of the United Auto Workers union saw their pensions topped off and made whole.

The White House and Treasury Department have consistently maintained that the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) independently made the decision to terminate the 20,000 non-union Delphi workers’ pension plan. The PBGC is a federal government agency that handles private-sector pension benefits issues. Its charter calls for independent representation of pension beneficiaries’ interests.

Former Treasury official Matthew Feldman and former White House auto czar Ron Bloom, both key members of the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry during the GM bailout, have testified under oath that the PBGC, not the administration, led the effort to terminate the non-union Delphi workers’ pension plan.

“As a result of the Delphi Corporation bankruptcy, for example, Delphi and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation were forced to terminate Delphi’s pension plans, which means there are Delphi retirees who unfortunately will collect less than their full pension benefits,” Feldman testified on July 11, 2012.

The emails TheDC has obtained show that the Treasury Department, not the independent PBGC, was running the show.

Under 29 U.S.C. §1342, the PBGC is the only government entity that is legally empowered to initiate termination of a pension or make any official movements toward doing so.

NOTE – READ THE EMAILS HERE – LINK.

UPDATE IV – ‘Highly confidential’ internal Treasury documents show Obama admin’s involvement in Delphi pension scandal  – LINK

2012 Primary, Econ, Obama, Stuck on Stupid, True Talking Points

Detroit becomes dumping ground for the dead

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Detroit has been run by Democrats for decades. Their wealth destroying policies oversaw Detroit’s decline from the highest per capita income in the country to next to 67th.

Related:

Progressivism Unrestrained: 1 in 3 residences abandoned in Detroit.

Profiles in Unrestrained Progressivism: Detroit

Detroit Public Schools Graduation Rate 26%

Democrat Conyers Pleads Guilty to Feds for Taking Bribes.

Progressivism Unrestrained: Detroit building “train to nowhere”

Democrats Loot Detroit for Half a Billion, Elite Media Doesn’t Care…


Palm Beach Post:

From the street, the two decomposing bodies were nearly invisible, concealed in an overgrown lot alongside worn-out car tires and a moldy sofa. The teenagers had been shot, stripped to their underwear and left on a deserted block.

They were just the latest victims of foul play whose remains went undiscovered for days after being hidden deep inside Detroit’s vast urban wilderness — a crumbling wasteland rarely visited by outsiders and infrequently patrolled by police.

Abandoned and neglected parts of the city are quickly becoming dumping grounds for the dead — at least a dozen bodies in 12 months’ time. And authorities acknowledge there’s little they can do.

“You can shoot a person, dump a body and it may just go unsolved” because of the time it may take for the corpse to be found, officer John Garner said.

The bodies have been purposely hidden or discarded in alleys, fields, vacant houses, abandoned garages and even a canal. Seven of the victims are believed to have been slain outside Detroit and then dumped within the city.

It’s a pattern made possible by more than four decades of urban decay and suburban flight. White residents started moving to burgeoning suburbs in the 1950s, then stepped up their exodus after a deadly 1967 race riot. Detroit’s black middle class followed over the next two decades, leaving block after block of empty homes.

Over time, tens of thousands of houses deteriorated. Some collapsed, others were demolished. Empty lots gave way to block-long fields.

Jacob Kudla and Jourdan Bobbish were found July 27 in a field off Lyford Street, a lonely road that borders an industrial area and a small municipal airport. The teens from suburban Westland, 18 and 17, respectively, had been visiting Kudla’s uncle in Detroit when they disappeared July 22.

Their corpses were found by someone walking along the desolate block. The closest house, about 100 yards (91.4 meters) away, belongs to 74-year-old Ella Dunn.

Over the last 24 years, she has watched nearly all her neighbors move out. Now she constantly hears people dumping tires, furniture and trash.

“They drive down and push stuff out,” she said.

A nearby parking lot resembles a small landfill for junk — a coloring book based on Bible characters, a yellow toilet, furniture, shoes and five boats.

“Detroit is a dumping ground for a lot of stuff,” said Margaret Dewar, professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Michigan. “There is no one to watch. There is no capacity to enforce laws about dumping. There is a perception you can dump and no one will report it.”